West Bottoms Antique District
Kansas City, Missouri
I came away junk-drunk from my first First Friday in the West Bottoms, and Day Two was equally intoxicating. The vendors there are creative, clever, and passionate. It’s a big party where you get to buy really cool old stuff. If you like architecture, history, antiques, or food trucks…you’ll like the West Bottoms — it’s just plain fun! My Day Two finds…
I love this sad little guy! I’m not sure he knows what he’s waiting for, but he seems to still have hope. And his hair is stylin’!
When art inspires stories, that’s when you take it home. There’s nothing more inspiring to me than original folkart. I found this wonderful assemblage art piece by former Hallmark artist Chari Peak Roberts at Prize Antiques in the Bottoms Up Antique Market. West Bottoms in Kansas City, Missouri. That’s a working seed spreader on his belly!
Now that he lives in my home, I’ve renamed him Lefty McBrush-Head.
Cool vintage mannequin. Love her!
Bottoms Up Antique Market
West Bottoms
Kansas City, Missouri
Super-cool street art in the West Bottoms, in super-cool Kansas City.
First Friday/Saturday of each month
West Bottoms antique district
Kansas City, Missouri
Lots of free parking, plus closer VIP parking for $10
All the funky junk in the West Bottoms antique district has me light-headed, and dreaming of moving to a new house just to decorate it! On the first Friday/Saturday of each month, this historic Kansas City warehouse district wakes up and comes alive, and shoppers flock to the area from states all across the Midwest. The hundreds (not kidding) of vendors are decorated for the holidays this month, so you can visit to gawk (at the amazing old buildings), shop, or find inspiration (which abounds). If you ever wonder where the creative folks in KC go for fun…this is it. This unique area is one-of-a-kind — historic buildings filled with history for sale (at really good prices!).
The shops are all open on First Friday Weekends, but some of them are open every weekend, and some of them have special holiday sale dates.
I arrived in Butte, Montana on Halloween and it didn’t take long to figure out that Butte is a party town! I’ve never seen so many stores and houses decorated for Halloween, and there were at least a dozen options for adult entertainment that night…a really scary haunted “house” in a 100+-year-old mine shaft, a masquerade ball in a mansion that belonged to one of Butte’s founding families, and, of course, “Rocky Horror Picture Show” at the local (but equally old and historic) theatre. I’m just glad I didn’t see this store window until the day AFTER Halloween. (One of the most awesome mannequins EVER)…
Sheridan, Wyoming
It seemed wonderfully appropriate to arrive in Butte, Montana on Halloween, since I sought out this historic mining town for its architecture and, especially, for its many ghost signs. Ghost signs are painted billboards on the sides of decades-old buildings and, like decades-old people, some have survived better than others. There’s a conscious effort in Butte (and in Port Townsend, Washington and Eureka Springs, Arkansas) to preserve these artistic beauties as time capsules from the past. Nearly 100 of them survive in Butte, in varying conditions. A few of my favorites —
obsessive hobbyist 